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Thursday, September 29, 2011

♥ We're thinking about going to the zoo tomorrow. It's looking like it very well may be our last day of decent weather until . . . oh probably next June or July. So we're going to take advantage.

♥ Miss Taylor is {finally} sporting cloth diapers. I cloth diapered Sierra. Didn't with Kenners {not sure why?} and started over again cloth diapering Kam at around 4 months old. I thought I'd use disposables through the summer, but it's taken me awhile to get the cloth ones out. They're finally out, we're using them, and all is going well :)

♥ Speaking of Taylor, she is a DROOL MACHINE. I seriously do not remember my other girls having quite so much saliva. She can drool through a bib, denim jumper and onesie in no time flat. Poor little darlin'.

♥ I've been thinking of doing a weekly "photo tip" installment here on the ol' blog. Not sure if there's any interest, but it might be fun to share ideas.

♥ And speaking of photos . . . does anyone else have a hard time keeping up with them? I would LOVE some tips on photo management, because I'm not doing a great job managing! Don't laugh, but my method right now is pretty much uploading all of them to another site {usually Shutterfly}so that I at least have them backed up to another location. Also it makes it easy later on to make photo books and have CDs made. Occasionally I'll have some printed. That's it. That's all I've got. I typically take around 1,000 photos a month, sometimes more, and I feel like I'm drowning in digital files!

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

{Okay, so IA said that we could write about whatever we wanted ~ no rules~ and still link up. Hope I'm not breaking any rules here ;) And by the way, head on over there to find out what others have on their mind today.}

American Girl, Day Two:

Our second day at American Girl started with a trip to the Doll Hair Salon.

{Yeah, you heard that right}

Meagan and Hanna were in desperate need of new 'dos, don'tcha know.

Meagan chose a side braid.

And Hanna got the half pony braid. They also both received the full spa treatment. And let me tell ya, they needed it. Kenners had also saved her money so that Hanna could get her ears pierced.

We walked out with several enormous bags that morning.﻿ We then walked around to check out the rest of the mall {much to the girls' dismay}.

We needed to run off a little energy besides.

And we came across this adorable little bakery. Ohhhh how we wanted to go in, but alas, it wasn't to be. Next door to Pinkabella was Godiva chocolates. I'm not going to tell you about the big poster in the window advertising Godiva chocolate shakes. With whipped cream. And chocolate syrup drizzled over the top.

Time for a few photos.﻿

There was a lady walking by who was kind enough to offer to get a shot of our whole group. Grandma, Nana, Mama, and all the girly girls!﻿

And before we knew it, it was time to head for dinner. There were chairs and place settings for each doll.﻿

And yummy drinks and eats.

Fun story: American Girl was truly an amazing experience. Each and every employee we came in contact with was over-the-top helpful and just as sweet as can be. At dinner my mom had decided on the salmon. I think we all expected it might take a little extra time for that particular meal, and didn't think too much of it when we had been waiting awhile. Our waitress came out and apologized {and apologized} for the wait, and assured us our food would be out soon. No biggie. Shortly after, another gal {I'm assuming a manager?} came out and also apologized for the wait, and insisted that we all order desserts on the house because of the extensive wait. And if that weren't enough {MORE than enough!}, she brought out goodie bags for each of the girls, containing tee shirts for their dolls, balloons, a book, stickers. It was hands-down, the BEST service I have ever received. Just a really really great experience.

So you can imagine we were a little sad to be leaving.

Our trip home . . . that is a story all its own.

Let's just say we took quite the detour.

Saw some beautiful country.

Listened to someone jabber the ENTIRE trip.

And made it home to the boys, all safe and sound, a good many hours later ;)

Monday, September 26, 2011

I'm not going to lie. It was a long drive for the little ones {and maybe even some of the big ones}.

﻿There was many a bathroom stop.

Which led to issues getting back on the freeway.

Which led to going through Seattle during rush hour.

Which led to . . . a much longer drive than it really needed to be.

But that's okay, because the excitement. Oh the excitement . . . it completely took over.

And us big people got to enjoy the lovely scenery. {Don't worry. I wasn't driving ;) My mom actually did all of the driving, which was heavenly as it freed me up to tend to the littlest passengers. Have I ever mentioned that I really detest driving? Fact #1187 about me that y'all may not have known}

The mall was super easy to find. It was just a few blocks down the road from our hotel. The actual American Girl store? Not so easy for us out-of-towners. We must have driven around a good half an hour looking for the darn thing. But once we parked, and searched on foot . . . well, that didn't take long at all. I'm telling you, my girls can sniff out an AG store like nobody's business.

And then, as you can imagine, a lot of this was going on.

And some pretty intent browsing.

Kam was all about the shaved ice stand.﻿

Sierra and Makenna had decided that the first day would be just for looking. Then they would spend the rest of the evening making notes as to which items they just HAD to have. In the end, they gave in a little and purchased a couple of things that night.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Seriously, someone needs to find a way to slow time down. This is getting ridiculous!

Miss Tay . . . .

You are three months old today!!! {And if anyone reminds me that you are 1/4 of the way to your first birthday, I might have to flick 'em in the nose}.

Miss Tay, you can still nod off right in the middle of all of the action. You are typically ready for a morning nap about an hour and a half after waking in the morning. Then you'll take another one in the afternoon, and yet another in the evening sometimes. You wake to eat several times in the middle of the night, and have taken to waking up around 2am for a bit of a party for an hour or so before you settle back in for the rest of the night. If you'd like to eliminate the late night partying, that'd be okay by me ;)

You do a lot of this ;) But I'm totally clued in to what it means 99.9% of the time ;) Usually it means, "I'm tiiiiiiiiired, mama! Put me to sleep!!!!!"

This seriously *still* gets me every single time. I am so in love with you sucking your thumb. I love the way you curl your little fingers over your nose. I love that you love that little thumb. I'm ignoring all comments about how terrible it is for your future teeth, because at this point? I don't even care. That is how utterly adorable I think it is.

Oh my goodness, you are the sweetest, most adorable thing ever! You bring us more joy and happiness every day!